Design
Hexagon is a place where my favorite subjects come together: Science, Technology, Photography, Filmmaking, Travel, and Design. But there are more things I love to share—food, stories, reviews, and other things that don’t necessarily fit.
Welcome to Diameter—that which spans one’s many interests.
I was in a meeting today and one of my leaders and friends talked about the good news that we may not be hearing. It struck me immediately as all that we, as a human race, have been discussing are the bad things that have happened over the past months concerning COVID-19—that we are doing the kind and compassionate thing in sacrificing our normal daily lives to go into a social distancing methodology that is actually quite the contrary to human existence. We are social creatures—even the most introverted of us.
Some shared the work that they are doing, how they are keeping busy, the fun they are having, even through life is challenging at the moment. While I rarely care to be in the spotlight, getting positive feedback or sharing what I feel are my accomplishments is actually very awkward for me, I wanted to share something that I worked on for and am now only truly appreciating the impact that myself and team had.
I volunteer to work for Aid Africa’s Children and lead their technology efforts. We are a not for profit who shares our talents and resources in Africa—specifically, Tanzania, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, and Nigeria.
Sub-Saharan africans spend 40 billion hours a year collecting water. I wanted to change that.
This is my story:
“More people die from contaminated or polluted water than from all forms of violence including wars,” states the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Recently, Aid Africa’s Children’s built a much needed 6 tank, 5,000 liters (1,300 Gallon) per tank rainwater collection system at the Benedictine Holy Spirit Abbey in Mvimwa, Tanzania. This project was completed ahead of schedule, under budget and is sustainable and green! Our project also aligned with the United Nation’s 2018 World Water Development Report suggestions for encouraging “Nature-Based Water Solutions (NBS)” to meet the rapid increasing global demand for water.”
Please read the whole article—it is short. There are good things still happening in the world—this is happening right now.
Transforming Lives in Tanzania with Rainwater Collection System
Aid Africa’s Children
Our mission: Empowering impoverished African children and communities with healthcare, food, clean water, educational, and entrepreneurial opportunities.
This is an ongoing project to bring clean water to those who need. While I sit here writing this, I have 144 bottles of water I could drink at anytime—unscrew the cap and drink. Sadly, this luxury I take for granted is not how most of the world lives.
If you would like to help, explore out website and visit Get Involved.
Stay safe, stay healthy.
Adrian’s Life Rule #31: If what you have you do not need, be kind and share with someone who does.
With the announcement of the new Motorola RAZR 2019, I think it would be a challenge to argue it isn’t cool. The RAZR of yesterday is a legendary phone. Motorola is no stranger to making some important advancements in mobile phone technology. Going back even further, the StarTAC was a super cool, Star Trek, communication device that change the mobile world.
This new RAZR is really slick—the hinge was four years in the making to ensure that it doesn’t (hopefully) have the same fate as the Samsung Galaxy Fold. The external display allows for one to engage the device for quick responses to messages, see notifications, use the primary camera, control music, and more. The design is glass, stainless steel, resin material, and has splash resistances. When unfolded it is flat and beautiful. When it is closed, it is compact and slick.
However, with all the coolness, 2004 retroness, technology, thiness, and more, people are complaining about the tech specs.
While I’m not here to really discuss the choices of Motorola, I’m discussing technical specifications as a whole and how, mostly, they do not matter.
Consider this: In 2000, were people checking there email on computers? And in 2010? And will we be checking email on computers in 2020?
The correct answer is ‘yes.’ And that is the point. Overall, how we use our devices, hasn’t really changed. Let’s consider iPhone in 2010. It was the year of iPhone 4, Instagram, and people started to really use their iPhone as a camera. In fact, I took a whole trip to London and left behind my Nikon D700 just to see how far I could push my iPhone 4 camera. While it was no match for iPhone devices of today or my Nikon D700 of 2009, I have photos from London that I love.
I took those photos, edited them and posted them to Instagram, and did so while abroad, on various networks in the U.K.
Today, iPhone 11 Pro is a very sophisticated mobile computer with three cameras, OLED XDR display, and (mine) has eight times the storage of iPhone 4, LTE, and so much more. But in the end, I use it very much the same way as before.
The Motorola RAZR has an “old” processor and camera sensor, small battery, and 128GB of storage. But who cares? This device isn’t designed for the power user. To make it highly portable and foldable, it would make sense to put a smaller battery. But to save on power, they put in a “slower” processor.
Let’s discuss two scenarios:
Motorola makes the RAZR thicker with a bigger battery and a more powerful processor. Audience: “it is too heavy, bulky, and doesn’t fit the RAZR heritage."
Motorola makes the RAZR thinner, smaller battery, and compensates with a slower processor. Audience: “it isn’t as fast as other new Android devices."
Consider every device you own and how much engineering and other decisions go into them. Specs are one facet of any device and the perspective of good or bad is very much relative. Everything is a tradeoff.
Images courtesy of Motorola
